Qualification of 200 mm manual loading/unloading equipment with PWP-measurements

A PWP qualification and comparision of up till now worldwide-available 200 mm manual SMIF loading/unloading equipment was carried out to determine their contamination level and operator influence. The manual SMIF loading/unloading equipment was qualified using PWP-measurement according to the 16 MBit JESSI AUTOWEC specifications. An optimized PWP procedure for a cost- and timesaving qualification, developed and proved within several PWP measurements by FhG-IPA was used. The first measurement was performed without handling of the wafer carrier, the second with a fully production-related handling of the wafer carrier. Four different pieces of equipment, the ASYST ALU 2200, ACR ERGO SMIF MAN, JENOPTIK SLR 200/M and IBM Manual Opener was qualified. The qualification showed that all four pieces of manual SMIF loading/unloading equipment were within the range of the required PWP for the 16 MBit technology (JESSI AUTOWEC specification). These PWP values were even reached with operator influen ce provided that the operator worked carefully. Also, the contamination influences of two different SMIF pods, the ASYST SMIF pod and the FLUOROWARE transport module, were compared. The two pods were measured using the same equipment with exactly the same handling procedure. The result was that there was no recognisable difference of PWP value for either pod type.